According to Federal Election Commission records, two Tea Party political action committees have raised more money combined in 2013 than three political action committees affiliated with Karl Rove.
Politico reported on Wednesday that “[t]he trio of conservative outside groups founded by GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie … American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS and the Conservative Victory Project jointly posted a $3.37 million fundraising haul …in the first half of 2013.”
In contrast, the two leading Tea Party political action committees–the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund super PAC and the TeaPartyExpress.org PAC–took in more than $4.1 million combined during the same period. The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund raised $2 million and the TeaPartyExpress.org PAC raised $2.1 million. Both groups also had plenty of cash on hand as of June 30, 2013, the end of the reporting period. The Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund had over $600,000 in cash, and the TeaPartyExpress.org PAC had over $800,000 in cash.
Significantly, Politico reported that $1 million of the $3.3 million raised by Rove’s groups came “from a single corporate donor,” while most of the donations to the Tea Party PACs came from unitemized donations of less than $200.
According to Roll Call, “Our Country Deserves Better PAC – TeaPartyExpress.org reported it had receipts of $2,179,948 . . . as of June 30. The PAC received $1.8 million from contributors giving $200 or less.”
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